D200 focus settings

[cris_watk]

I have been playing around with the AF ON button on my D200 and am new to

professional level cameras (my last was the D70). What auto focus settings

suit you best when taking pictures of moving people (candids) in poor lighting?

My camera doesn't want to focus no matter what I do at times. By poor

lighting I mean dusk or indoor. There are so many settings with the D200 that

I'm confused at which one would be best. I like the AF ON button because once

I get my subject in focus I can move them off center and it won't refocus the

camera. I like having that flexibility it seems like all the other settings I

try...as soon as I move the subject in the frame the camera refocuses. But I

don't like the button because its a little awkward for me to reach seeing that

I have small hands.

 

HELP? Thanks for any tips and advice you can give me.

[Ed_Ingold]

You can program the focus to engage and lock on an half-press of the shutter release, which is a more natural action IMO. Single servo mode is better in low light than Continuous servo, and is necessary if you focus then compose.

 

There are a couple of things you can do in poor light. If you use a single-area mode, find an area, and place it on an edge or pattern. If you are shooting faces, the eyes or edge of the face against a contrasting background works. The sharper the contrast, the more efficient the focusing. At other times, one of the multi-area focusing modes works well, since it can find the contrast it needs over a larger area. Finally, when all else fails, you can focus the camera manually. This allows you to shoot even if focus lock is not obtained.

[harry_neuwirth1]

The auto-focus needs a small area of high contrast. Rather than center focus and recompose, you can use the 7 area or 11 area frame to position your focal point almost anywhere on the frame. By the same token, you might try setting auto-exposure to spot metering. In low and variable lighting this will properly expose your focal point rather than take an average of the entire scene.

[joseph_smith3]

This info from Digital Darrell is very informative on the D 200's custom settings used in conjunction with other settings on the camera. You might have to study this a few times. Make the effort. It is worth it. Read all of the segments. At the very end he has some recommended settings for certain shooting situations:

 

http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/nikon_articles/body/d200_multi-cam1000_af/index.html

 

You have four banks, A, B, C and D, for your settings. I would leave one alone with just the defaults. Then customise the other three for your shooting situations. Mine are Normal, Flight and Flash.

 

Joe Smith

[brent_mcsharry1]

I guess if you are trying to take candids, you have the af assist lamp (on camera or hot shoe flash) turned off. This makes low light focussing difficult. From the point of view of taking low light candids without accesory lighting, a manual rangefinder probably has it all over a dslr. However to use the d200 as mentioned, make sure the focus is on "s", and manually choose the focus area.

 

As for the camera refocusing, try custom setting option A6 for AF activation, and set it to AF button only. that way it won't refocus as the shutter release reaches half way. If you want to try a different technique altogether, set custom mode A2 AF-S priority to focus with AF button activation only, and then set focus to "M" and focus manually you can actually capture focus by focusing in front of a moving subject and depressing the shutter release - the shot will only be taken when the subject has moved into focus.